Healthy Mind, Happy Heart Wellington, New Zealand

kids mindfulness

I’m running two CROCHET courses and a MINDFULNESS FOR PARENTS & PRIMARY SCHOOL KIDS this term!

However the only one that still might have some spaces is this: http://www.tawacomed.co.nz/Course,Beginner-Crochet-Wellington,2433

Also COLOURING for adults is this Sunday again at the Tawa Community Centre.

WEEKLY MINDFULNESS WORKOUT:

Mindfulness is bringing your full awareness to the here and now, in a kind, accepting and non judging way. You can use your senses to help you to come back to the present moment. Focussing on sounds is a really easy one that you can practice everywhere!

So this week, take a few moments every day to bring your full attention to what you can hear.

Sounds far away, sounds nearby.

Loud sounds, and quiet sounds.

Don’t look for sounds, just listen.

Do you notice how your mind wants to figure out what the sounds are? Is your mind judging the sounds? It’s totally normally if this happens!

Just bring your attention back to only listening to the sounds you can hear. You can silently label a sound “bird” or “wind”, that’s all you do.

I had a fun week, teaching mindfulness at Tawa College to teenagers and at the community centre to a younger age group.

I explained to the teens about how thoughts, feelings and actions relate to each other in every day situations. When I asked them if that was already known information, I was so surprised that this basic understanding of our wellbeing, was missing!

So one more time:

Our daily life is a string of situations up on situations. In every situation there will be thoughts popping up in our minds, we feel things in our body, have emotions and we will do something. Or we will avoid doing something.

This determines whether we are on an upwards way, in our spiral of well-being, or on a downward way.

By becoming more mindful of ourselves, and how we react in daily situations, we will get more insight in why we feel the way we feel. And that gives us the opportunity to make changes to what we think, what we feel and what we do so we make sure we get on the way up in this spiral.

This week take some time, to have a good look at where you are on this spiral. At the bottom, half way up, or are you generally feeling all good, standing at the top of your spiral??

Can you think of changes you can make, to keep going upwards? Or to stop from going downwards?

Have a great week, remember to register for the 8 week mindfulness that starts next term, (the above is part of this course). This is a great course for teenagers too! And not just for women 🙂

Monique

💜Healthy Mind, Happy Heart

ps, quiet for the storm. Tawa College session about mindfulness last Monday.

If you missed the pics on facebook https://www.facebook.com/easynowmindfulness/ you can see them below as well.

Hope you join me next year!!

You can learn to crochet at Tawa Community Education in August to get ready for it!

See the latest newsletter here:

http://mailchi.mp/369f9f6eb010/qrqirdo3zp

>>>>Free workout starts here:

Last week we talked about, and practiced, mindful eating at the Creative Mindfulness class. One of the things that came up, is that mindful eating is about keeping the joy in eating, and eat with your full attention, making wise choices about what to eat. Deciding on foodoptions the same way you spend your money wisely.

A great way to do that is to have a lunchdate with yourself. And we are so extremely lucky in Wellington to have so many great food trucks, that this is such a fun exercise too!!

So this week, go on that lunch date!!

Pick something your really like, (maybe a smaller portion of something that is a bit more expensive than your usual lunch), find a nice spot to sit outside, and eat with your full attention. Taking in how it looks, how it feels, how it smells, and how it tasts.

7 August: 8 week Rewire Your Brain for Happiness, MBSR training. This succesful mindfulness training is for beginners and for those who have done a short training before. Integrate mindfulness into your daily life and get 10+ downloadable exercises to practice at home. Down to earth class.

Mindfulness Workout of the week.

One of the things that always works, and is also part of the mindfulness for kids programme Pause Breathe Smile is that children are asked to smile as part of the mindfulness practices.

The body and brain are connected, they trigger each other and listen to another. You can use that, to influence how you feel. If you move your mouth into a smiley pose that will make you feel a little more positive. I bet you are trying it right now 😁

So this week, all you have to focus on, is to consciously bring your mouth to smile, a couple of times a day, and see what happens.

You can put a sticky note with a smiley face on your mirror, draw a little smiley on your hand, change your passwords to finish with SMILE, or set a timer a couple of times a day, anything to remind yourself to smile.

Hope you had a nice long weekend! We were home, spending some time together, no pressure, no stress.

One of the attitudes of mindfulness is to be non-judgmental.

We are judging all the time and this keeps us safe when we are crossing a road.

However we often judge out of habit, and this can affect how we feel. Judging ourselves negatively, or judging others in a negative way, gives us negative feelings and makes us feel disconnected from others.

So this week, try to be aware of your judging, and if you can, try to change your mind into judging a little less, so you feel a little happier.